The present invention relates to the new and distinct cultivar of Coneflower from the genus Echinacea and given the cultivar name ‘Yellow My Darling’. The new plant was the result of a self-pollination by the inventor of an unnamed proprietary hybrid known as 14-3-11 (not patented) on Jul. 15, 2015 at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich. This seedling was evaluated first in trials in the summer of 2016 at the same nursery and assigned the breeder code of 15-3-6. Echinacea ‘Yellow My Darling’ has been asexually propagated at the same nursery by crown division since 2017 and also using careful shoot tip tissue culture procedures and found to reproduce plants that exhibit all the characteristics identical to the original plant.
Echinacea ‘Yellow My Darling’ is distinct from all other Coneflowers known to the inventor. The nearest comparison cultivars are ‘Matthew Saul’ U.S. Pat. No. 17,652, ‘Leilani’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 23,526, ‘Maui Sunshine’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,808, ‘Balsomemy’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,768, ‘Balsomemyim’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 30,116, ‘Canary Feathers’ U.S. Plant Patent Application copending, ‘Julia’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,629, ‘Cleopatra’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,631 and ‘TNECHKY’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 29,922.
The parent plant, 14-3-11, was not maintained as either plants or in photography, so no comparison is possible. ‘Matthew Saul’ is slightly shorter in habit and the ray florets are smaller and the coloration is not as deep bright yellow. ‘Leilani’ is slightly shorter in habit and ray florets have a more orange overlay. ‘Maui Sunshine’ is taller in habit and has ray florets that are less bright yellow. ‘Balsomemy’ produces slightly smaller plants, without branching stems, with smaller, fewer, more subtending and more narrow ray tepals that have a coloration that is more orangish-yellow. ‘Balsomenmyim’ is slightly smaller in habit and the inflorescences produce chaff or spines that are more orange and less dark red. ‘Canary Feathers’ has a lighter yellow ray florets. ‘Julia’ has orange ray florets that are less overlapping and more drooping. ‘Cleopatra’ has ray florets that are less overlapping and are lighter yellow. ‘TNECHKIO’ has much shorter habit and smaller ray tepals that are not as bright yellow.